24. Phase One

☾.˚˖⁺✦ Phase One ✦˙⊹˚☽

TW // Horror

Song Guide: Cold As Ice by Foreigner

Walking quietly behind Dustin and Eddie all Victoria could bring herself to think about was if Max was okay. She knew soon enough the young girl would have to face Vecna again.

If there was anyway she could switch places with her, she would do it in a heartbeat.

Eddie glanced back at her one, two, three, four, and now about five times. He motioned Dustin to carry along as he stood in place waiting for Victoria to catch up.

"You didn't have to come with us you know?", he said with a grin on his face.

She softly forced a laugh. "Wasn't letting you two dorks get all the fun, E."

He swung his arm around her as they continued to walk down the road where dust flew all around them. "Nervous?"

Her only response was a shrug of the shoulders as she watched her brother walk up ahead of them. She was nervous, and she knew so were they. But if there was one thing she was good at it was putting up a front to be the strongest for the sake of others.

However, this worked in the real world. Here in the Upside Down it was like all her emotions were out on display for all to see.

Victoria's eyes lingered a few seconds longer on Dustin. She hated the idea of something happening to her little brother. How was he not even shaken up by any of this? He was always the braver Henderson, she supposed.

Eddie gave the brunette girl a squeeze, "What's up? I know that look."

She glanced upwards into Eddie's dark brown eyes. They had always made her feel like she was at a safe haven. He was her safe haven as she was to him as well.

"Can you promise me something?"

A deep sigh escaped her friend's lips, afraid to know what he knew he would have to promise no matter what. Eddie nodded his head.

"Whatever happens... we protect Dustin at all costs..."

A pause came between the two as Eddie stopped in his track dragging Victoria to a halt. He turned to look at her now with sad eyes. "And?"

Her eyes began to gloss over as her lower lip quivered. Victoria tried her best not to start crying.

"If..", her voice cracked, "If something happens..."

"Victoria, stop."

She shook her head refusing to do so. "If something happens to me-"

"Victoria, please, stop."

"Promise me you'll take care of him."

They both looked into each other's eyes with the realization that this was it, somehow they knew one of them wasn't going to make it out.

"Hey guys, Eddie's trailer is right up ahead!", Dustin yelled back at them.

Eddie glanced at Dustin for awhile not wanting to meet Victoria's eyes. Only silence followed through between the two of them. Victoria watched as the curly haired boy took a deep swallow and the tension in his shoulders rose.

Without a response, he just continued walking, leaving her standing there. Victoria's face dropped, the sudden wrenching feeling settled in her stomach. That was enough of a response to her question. She knew what this had meant.

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽Steve's Pov

The thought of turning back around and going with Victoria was a tortious idea that he was on the edge of taking part of. All he could ponder about was the ways she could get hurt or even worse get killed.

Steve had come face to face with the miniature beasts that had taken chunks of skin as their nasty reward. Only a few had caused such damage, he could not even imagine what a large swarm of them could do.

Chills began running down his spine at the distant noises of creatures chittering rang around the words. It wasn't helping his negative thinking.

"Uh... I don't mean to freak anyone out, but I swear we've seen this tree before.", Robin spoke out loud as she pointed her flashlight at a tree that looked like all the other ones in the woods.

The brunette boy let out an annoyed sigh. He knew every single one of them were tense about this mission, but the thought of them going in circles was something he refused to believe.

"That's impossible.", Nancy spoke.

"That would suck, right?"

They continued on passing the tree Robin had pointed out. Steve stayed behind as he locked his eyes for a few seconds onto the tree, analyzing every detail just in case they did loop back around to it.

"If Vecna destroyed the world because... 'cause we got lost in the woods?"

Once Robin began blabbering away it was evident that the girl was beginning to stress and panic. They all were internally freaking out as well, but Robin wasn't the type of person to keep it inside.

"We're not lost, Robin.", Nancy reassured her.

The auburn haired girl began to nervously laugh as she continued around the trees nearly bumping into one with her large backpack. "Robin, hey. Watch out for the vines! Hive mind. Remember?"

"Thank you!", the girl yelled behind her.

Robin was off trekking the woods with a quick walk as she searched for the slide Erica would be waiting for them at in the real world. Steve wasn't surprised that she had wondered off, out of sight. Typical, of Robin to want to get ahead.

Glancing over at Nancy, he saw the bewildered look on her face, terrified that neither of them could see the other girl now. "Uh, Don't worry about her. She's just stressed. You know, scared."

"Yeah, Yeah, I... I know. It's just..."

Steve chuckled, "She's a super klutz?"

It was true, if he had a dollar for the many times Robin had fell over or tripped over her own two feet, he'd be pretty rich by now.

Nancy laughed at his commentary bringing him a slight smile to his face knowing he had lightened the mood a bit.

"She did tell me that it took her longer to walk than most babies, so..."

Steve laughed as he reminisced on his times as a child. He wasn't quite wired the same way as other babies were while growing up. "I really shouldn't laugh... But when I was a baby, I actually crawled backwards."

"Crawled backwards?", Nancy looked at him weirdly.

He nodded his head as he did the motions with his hands. "You know, I'd push with my hands like this. Beep. Beep. Always in reverse, you know?"

Nancy laughed.

"Come on, it makes sense. You push to move, right?"

She shook her head at him. "No, no, it doesn't make sense."

Steve scoffed, there it was typical Nance not being able to see it in the funny way. "Well, it did to my tiny little Harrington brain. That is, until I reversed my baby butt down a flight of stairs and thumped my head really good."

Nancy raised her brows at him.

"Yeah."

She shook her head at him again. "Wow. That explains soooo much."

He smiled again. "Yeah. I think it kinda does."

It was clearer than it had ever been. He was the type of person who needed something to happen to snap him back into reality, to be the better version of himself. Steve never realized this until now.

"I think, like, right out of the gate, like, I'm super confident, you know? But I'm also, like, an idiot. Which is just... I mean, it's a brutal combination. But, I mean, the good news is, I get a big enough thump on my head, I can change, you know?"

All the thumps on the head he had in the past had built Steve up to be the person he was today, and he has had quite a few. One being the most important thump of all.

"I can learn. I can crawl forward. Listen, I guess what I'm trying to say in a really stupid, roundabout way is, um..."

He paused in his tracks as he turned to look at Nancy. Clicking his tongue he forced the words out. "...is thank you."

Nancy tried to hold back a laugh. "Thank me?"

Steve nodded his head. "Yeah."

"For?"

"For giving my head the biggest thump of its life, two years ago."

The curly haired girl looked at him with an odd expression on her face. She wasn't sure if he was being serious or not, but he was. Steve had been convinced that everything that had went down between them had made him a better person bringing him to Victoria in their present day. He might have not believed it then, but now he knew everything really did happen for a reason.

"I needed it. It's changed my life. And now I'm crawling forward, slowly. I'm just thinking, if you hadn't done so. Who would I be now?"

The two of them continued walking on as Nancy was falling back still stunned to what the boy was saying to her. They both never really had gotten closure about the way things ended between them. In fact, they never even addressed. It was nice being able to talk about it in a way of growth.

"Like, if we never met. Would I somehow still have gotten the chance to be with..."

Nancy was the one to pause in her step as she turned to look at him with a soft smile. "With Victoria?"

Steve couldn't help, but find himself smiling at the mention of her name. It was a public knowledge at this point, and it brought him so much joy. He would proudly declare it to the whole world that he had found the girl of his dreams if he could do so. "Yeah, with Victoria."

"You guys! Awesome news!", Robin came running in, interrupting their conversation.

Nancy perked up as she turned her head quickly to look at Robin. The brunette boy noticed Nancy's cheek flush in color. He cocked his head strangely between the two girls, almost as if he was missing something.

"Looks like we weren't going the wrong way after all. Come on!"

Robin motioned them to follow quickly as she began to walk quickly away from him. Nancy turned one last time to face Steve with a smile on her face. "You're not the only one who needed that thump on the head..."

Before he had time to process her words, she was off joining Robin. The other girl motioned for him to hurry up. "Let's go!"

"Ro... Slow down! Ro... Robin!"

The two girls quickly whipped around the woods as Robin held tightly onto Nancy's hand. Was Steve too blind by his own love affair to notice the one that had been brewing right before his eyes? He had seen the way Robin looked at other girls, specifically at Vickie, that look was now the same way Nancy had been looking at her.

Was Nancy into girls too?

He wasn't even upset about the fact, he was more so relieved. All he ever wanted was for his best friend to find someone to look at her the way she looked at the people she was in love with. And this was it. This was the look.

Nancy and Robin froze as their eyes were glued onto Victor Creel's house surrounded by the creatures he was beginning to fear most of. Robin pointed up ahead at the rocket ship shaped slide, they had arrived to their target location. "Erica."

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽Max's Pov

Be running up that road

Be running up that hill

Be running up that building

And if I only could, oh

The young red headed girl was sat grasping onto one of her knees stuck with the same Kate Bush song blasting into her ears. She had started to tune out the song a bit as she was scared soon enough it was going to be the one thing to make her go insane.

Her eyes wandered over to Lucas who was sat across from her. She hated that she couldn't speak to him out loud, but she could however write to him.

Grabbing onto her notepad she began to write. Trying to hold back a smile she turned it around for him to see.

Hi, it read.

A smile swept onto Lucas's face as he excitingly grabbed his notepad now writing away. He turned it around.

Hi :)

Max's smile grew wider. She looked at Lucas's eyes, this was the look that she had fallen in love with since day one. She was his world, and no other person had made her feel such a way.

She turned the page onto her notepad, scribbling onto it.

I'm glad you're here.

His grin grew larger.

Me too!

She couldn't imagine doing this without him. He gave her the sense of safety because she knew he would never let anything hurt her, not even Vecna. Lucas would rather die before Vecna could get to Max.

The boy began to write away on his notepad again. Max attempted to squint her eyes to try to read what he was writing, but he purposefully put his hand over it to hide what he was writing. She bit down a laugh that was trying to escape her lips. This had been a little bit of normalcy that she needed.

He finally revealed what it said.

Movie Friday?

It was hard to keep her face from dropping. The idea on going on a date with him again should have brought her so much joy, but something about tonight's fate made it feel impossible to do. She sighed as she grabbed her notepad bringing her attention down to it. The least Max wanted to do was make Lucas feel bad, she had caused him enough harm.

The young girl began drawing away on the sheet of paper. She didn't want to lie to Lucas, but she could give an indirect response. It wasn't a no, but it was also not a yes. Something she was going to leave destiny to answer.

Lucas began leaning forward to try to get a sneak peek to her drawing, but she did the same thing he had earlier. She hid it for him until it was time for the big reveal. The only thing missing now in her drawing was her and Lucas as she finalized the last bit of details.

She took a deep breath as she turned it for him to look at. Max had drawn the both of them holding hands at the movie theater with Lucas holding popcorn in his other hand. It was a well drawn masterpiece she had thought to herself.

Lucas laughed making her smile once again. All they had to do was get through tonight, and her drawing would become a reality.

All of the happy feeling vanished as the light began to flicker their way.

It was Erica.

The two of them got up from their spots as Lucas signaled back to Erica confirming they were now going to proceed to phase two.

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽Victoria's Pov

The three of them stood in front of the newly renovated trailer now transformed into a Bat Bunker. Thunder began to boom off into the distance as the shortest glow of red filled the sky.

Eddie gave his approving head-nod. "Not bad."

Dustin nodded the same way the other boy had. "Not bad at all."

Victoria standing in between the two glanced at both of them seeing how much her brother was beginning to resemble Eddie. She knew he looked up to him a lot along with Steve, but she never really realized the small little things Dustin had began to copy from each boy.

The two of them creepily glanced over to her at the same exact second waiting for her input. "Oh, yeah! It looks, um, doable!"

"Doable?", Eddie mocked.

She pursed her lips together knowing that was poor wording for their current situation.

"Um, scratch that. It's not, uh, bad at all!", she reiterated their words.

The older boy chuckled as she bumped her arm. "Come on, now for the fun part!"

The two boys lead the way back into the trailer as she followed slowly behind them. Her mind being too busy needing to reassure everything they had done was safely secured, there was no room for any loose ends. Tugging on some of the metal panels they had installed caught the attention of her brother as he stayed behind. "What are you doing?"

Victoria jumped up not expecting that he was watching her. "Just, um, making sure everything is secured."

Dustin furrowed his eyebrows as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you underestimating our abilities of drilling something in place?"

Eddie popped his head out of the door. "So, not cool, Queen V!"

She nervously laughed, "Stop putting words into my mouth, dipshits, come on."

Pushing Dustin inside the trailer they both followed behind Eddie as he bursted through his bedroom door. It was an odd thing seeing his room exactly how it had been in the other world, except a few things were still existing in the Upside Down. His bed sheets had specifically been the ones she remembered he had a few years ago, navy blue ones.

The same sheets that suddenly had a suspicious stain on them which was the reasoning Eddie had thrown them out.

"Jesus Chr...", Eddie began.

Victoria jumped up to attempt in covering his eyes. "Oh, God! Eddie!! She's naked don't look!"

He laughed as he pushed her hands off of him.

"Even better.", he said with a smirk.

His eyes were glued onto the love of his life, his guitar. The guitar was a 24 fret, supercharged NJ Warlock with B.C. Rich Pickups. The instrument was practically his baby. Victoria remembered the first day he had gotten it, he wouldn't let a single soul near it, not even her.

"It's like... she was destined for an alternate dimension."

Eddie was practically mesmerized by his guitar as he approached it slowly. It was hung up in the same exact spot, no matter how many years had gone by it was always there. The curly haired boy grabbed the guitar, pulling it off of its holding spot. "Are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?", Dustin asked.

All Victoria was focused on was the precious grin on her best friend's face. He has been waiting for a moment like this to come, except of course the moment being actually performing a metal concert. But this was pretty close.

Saving the world with the magic of his shredding skills, it couldn't get quite get better than that for Eddie. He pulled the strap over his head as he swung his guitar back.

"Let's do this."